


Lost

by dolfabre



Category: Tales of the Abyss
Genre: Alt Prompt 10: Nightmares, Angst, Gen, Nightmares, No beta I'm Ginji and we ride or crash, Whumptober 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-16
Updated: 2020-10-16
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:00:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27034579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dolfabre/pseuds/dolfabre
Summary: Alone in a manor, a boy cries out for his sister.
Comments: 8
Kudos: 11





	Lost

“Mary!”

The manor was different to how he last remembered it; the careful and intricate paint on the walls had remained undisturbed, and the marble floor was the cleanest it had ever been - with not even a mark or footprint reflecting off the sunlight trailing in from the windows. Worryingly, it didn’t matter how many rooms or corridors he’d find himself in, little Gailardia couldn’t seem to find anyone at all. It was as though the maids and butlers had done their duties and had simply gone home. It was as though everyone had left, leaving no signs of living - no signs of dying, leaving himself behind.

As deafening and anxiety inducing as the silence around him was, Little Gailardia was determined not to give up; there had to be someone, be it a knight or even his attendant. Or at least, that was him trying to keep his hopes up. He was sure - convinced - that Marybelle and Vandesdelca of all people wouldn’t leave him alone like this… _would they_? No… no, he had to stay positive. He had to keep the fear from sitting on top of his chest as it was trying to, because it was making it harder to breathe.

“Vandesdelca..! Mary..!” he continued to call, listening as hard as he could to any voice that could potentially respond to him. “Mother..! Father..!” But to his disappointment, the only voice that returned to him was his own echo, bouncing back to him from down the hallway.

With each minute that passed, his small hands began to delicately shake with increasing intensity. The pace of his footsteps fastened until he found himself running through a maze of rooms that seemed much too similar to the last. As the stillness of the room became louder, as did the ringing in his ears, which immediately shifted his thoughts to panic. Hands found their way over the boy’s ears - squeezing almost - a last ditch attempt at trying to hush the murmurs whispering through his mind before they became much too loud. Much too loud that he could hear…

_That… wasn’t right… was it?_

Blue eyes widened as they tried to concentrate once more on what he’d heard, but he swore he knew the owner of such a laugh. A carefree laugh was enough to break the silence that trapped him, but with a voice that both relieved him and incited even more dread.

Gailardia slowly removed his hands from the sides of his head, his brow furrowed in confusion as the voice became slightly louder - but it still sounded a distance away. He was as confident as he could be that while there weren’t many other places to search, the likelihood of anything appearing in the rooms he’d already looked through was slim. And something only seemed to hit him upon turning around slightly;

_The garden._

He hadn’t checked the garden.

Without wasting a single second, the boy ran to the previous room, back into the hallway before running as fast as he could, pushing himself with all his strength. His direction was a little unclear - as if he couldn’t exactly remember just where his destination was, but it didn’t take too long to find himself standing in the courtyard as he was met by the warmth of the afternoon sun. It was bright, maybe even a little too bright, but after spending what felt like hours in such still surroundings, he didn’t mind. If anything, it reminded him that everything would be okay.

“Mary! Mary!” Gailardia’s voice shouted as before, but this time the anxiety from before had been replaced with excitement. With hope-filled eyes and a smile that dared to flicker onto his lips, he continued his sprint forward - as fast as his little legs could take him.

It didn’t take too long before a couple of familiar appearances came into frame; his dear older sister, laughing gleefully in conversation with their childhood friend and personal attendant, Vandesdelca, by the oak tree on the other side of the garden. The fact that the feeling in his heart - the one telling him that this was a lie, that this wasn’t real - was in fact wrong set him at ease. After all, they were there, right in front of him. As they should be.

“Mary! Van!” He rushed forward, from the concrete of the edges on the courtyard onto the grass. Despite the knowing that Mother and Father wouldn’t be very happy if his shoes got dirty, but for now that was the least of his worries. The smile on his face grew with anticipation, with the butterflies fluttering in his chest, but somewhere he knew that something wasn’t right.

It didn’t matter how far he ran, it was as though the pair in front of him kept moving further and further away from him. Nor did it matter how much he shouted out their names, they wouldn’t acknowledge him - or rather, _couldn’t_. The panic from before was beginning to set back in, and with each desperate yell of his voice, his throat began to feel so sore that he could barely call out any longer.

Legs eventually gave out, and he fell on the ground underneath him, but the ground kept moving forward until the two fell out of his eyesight. Soon to follow was the clear sky itself - turning darker and darker until all he could see was black - with the warmth from the afternoon sun mellowing into a cold that felt as though it could burn his skin. And on the tip of his fingers, he could feel something - something wet - and there was just enough light to see what it was.

_Blood._

At the sound of a blood-curdling scream, blue eyes flew open, and his body sat upright immediately. He blinked, taking in his current surroundings before letting out a defeated sigh. It wasn’t the first time he’d seen this dream and he doubted it would be the last, with the initial reaction always remained the same. His heart was beating at what felt like a thousand beats per second, and his breathlessness took another minute to regulate. Taking a look around, he noticed his companions in peaceful slumber, completely unaware of his own wakefulness.

Guy tended to find there was no real point thinking about the dream itself - he’d done it years before, for absolutely nothing to come of it. The dream didn’t seem to get any better, if anything, hearing Marybelle’s smile so clear like that in a time such as now… it made his heart ache. It hurt more than he could possibly describe.

Finally he allowed his head to fall back onto his small pillow, and without hesitation he removed the blanket that draped on him before, that was now probably covered in cold sweat. As much as he didn’t really intend on falling back to sleep, being awake before Jade would’ve been enough to gather suspicion, and as of right now - he didn’t have the energy to come up with an excuse.

And despite his intentions to stay awake, he drifted off to sleep for another couple of hours, forgetting that the last thought on his mind was that, he couldn’t recognise the scream that woke him up as his own.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you all so much for reading!! This hopefully won't be the only piece I write for Whumptober - so for all you Abyss fans out there, please stay tuned!!


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